The invention relates generally to the field of material processing, and more particularly to the printing and repeated cutting of a continuously flowing supply of material such as a fabric or paper web.
High speed printing and cutting machines are used to print upon and cut equal lengths of material from a continuous spool, such as in the production of manufacturers' labels to be placed in garments. The lengths of the labels must be consistent, and economic considerations make it desirable to produce many labels as quickly as possible.
Such a machine is described by Oakes et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,980, incorporated herein by reference, which processes a spool of fabric tape to produce discrete printed labels. During each cutting cycle, the flow of the tape immediately upstream of the cutter is momentarily halted by a brake. Thus halted, the tape can be cut cleanly and evenly, maintaining a fixed label length.
This machine has enjoyed considerable commercial success, producing high quality labels for use in the garment industry. Therefore improvements in the construction and operation of this type of machine and of printing machines incorporating such apparatus can be very advantageous.